


Honeymoon

by pidgeandcat



Series: Zutara Week 2020 [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Day 2: Counterpart, F/M, Fluff, Vigilante, im not good at tags, or writing fight scenes so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:00:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25607014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pidgeandcat/pseuds/pidgeandcat
Summary: Zuko and Katara spend their first month as newlyweds traveling as the Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady.
Relationships: Blue Spirit/Painted Lady, Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Zutara Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1853494
Kudos: 38





	Honeymoon

The Fire Lord and new Fire Lady were on their honeymoon for the next few weeks. Supposedly, they were off to Ember Island, relaxing on the white sand by the azure tide. It was a well deserved and welcome reprieve from their day-to-day work.

Or not.

Zuko and Katara were never ones to relax. As soon as one problem was solved, it was off to solve another. Simply put, they were workaholics. This was evident in the fact that they weren’t on a honeymoon at all. Instead of a luxury beach resort, the couple found themselves spending their beautiful summer nights sneaking around villages in the Northern Fire Nation, donned in their vigilante wear. 

Katara’s Painted Lady ensemble hadn’t changed much from her teenage years, but she had altered her outfit over time. She had invested in actual robes, rather than the brown tarp she had used before. She did the same for her hat and veil. She truly looked like a spirit. That was what they were going for, after all. However, she never invested in real face paint. She maintained that using the wild berries from each village was good luck. 

Zuko thought it was a little silly, but endearing nonetheless.

The Blue Spirit was virtually the same, too. He had obtained an identical mask to the one he threw away in Lake Laogai, and he wore the same dark clothes. The only thing that really changed was his skill. Fighting alongside Katara had only driven him to improve. They always were like two sides to the same coin. Yin and Yang. Sun and Moon. Fire and Water. Their fighting styles reflected that. They were perfect counterparts in battle. They complimented each other in an irrevocably mesmerizing way. They were a team that was simply unbeatable.

They usually put this partnership to good use late at night, under a blanket of darkness. Whether they were in the Fire Nation Capital, Omashu or Ba Sing Se, they always seemed to find trouble. And they _always_ knew how to face it. 

-0-

This village wasn’t unique. There were always going to be cases of local government withholding rations, medicine, supplies. People are easily corrupted by power, it seemed. 

Katara and Zuko were currently in a warehouse, transporting crates of rations out. They had been at it for the past three hours, and they were nearing the end. 

As she reached for the last crate, she said with a laugh, “Maybe we should’ve stayed on Ember Island. I didn’t think I’d be spending my first month as a married woman transporting crates like some kind of mover.”

He rolled his eyes. “Hate to break it to you, but this whole thing was your idea, Kat,” he joked. 

She walked towards him. “No, I seem to recall this specifically being _your_ idea, Mr. Fire Lord.”

“Of course, because I’m always the one to propose spending valuable and rare time off transporting food rations and medicine to fishing villages. Absolutely.”

Katara looked up with mirth in her eyes as she prepared a retort. Before she could say anything, though, they heard voices outside the warehouse.

“Guards,” she muttered under her breath as she went to retrieve her hat and veil. From there, she hid in the shadows behind other shipping containers. Not that she couldn’t or didn’t want to fight; it just didn’t make much sense for a river spirit to be present, given the circumstance. They were moving crates of rations from a warehouse. Her line of work usually entailed clearing rivers and destroying the factories that polluted them with her own two hands. It was just a little bit below her station. 

Zuko was close when the guards broke through the door at the sound of shuffling boxes and voices. 

He gave her a slight nod and went out into the fray. It was a distraction for her to keep moving the crates without drawing attention to herself.

The fight didn’t last long. News hardly reached this far north, so it could be assumed they hadn’t heard of the Blue Spirit, or the Painted Lady for that matter. He took the four guards out in a matter of seconds, and began to turn around to help Katara when he heard more approaching. 

“We’ve got more coming in,” he called out. “Sounds like a bigger group than before.”

She paused and turned around. Still cloaked by the shadow of the looming crates, she got a little closer and uncapped her waterskins. 

As expected, the door swung open on uneasy hinges once more. Zuko was right; this was a much larger group than before. So much so that Katara lost count of the men before she ran out of her hiding place. 

They all seemed to be non-benders, as most were wielding weapons that seemed far too cumbersome to be useful when you had bending. Some held swords, others had maces and some had knives. One guard even had an axe. They would seem formidable if they were more organized, truthfully. 

The fight started out relatively easy. While it was true that their bending improved each time they fought together, the same could be said for their non-bending combat. With each fight, Katara and Zuko grew more agile and more aware of their surroundings, which only stood to make them stronger. In a situation like this, with force coming from all directions, it’s good to know what you’re doing.

What caught both of them off guard was the random blast of fire that spawned from somewhere in the group. Zuko took that as an invitation to firebend too. Waves of blue and explosions of red filled the small warehouse. They used the element of surprise, along with their own to their advantage. 

The men began to drop like flies as the duo made their way through the crowd of fighters. The billowing clouds of flames grew in tandem with the ever-increasing tsunami. In the end, it was them versus the firebender and mace wielder. They seemed like normal opponents for a little while, until their erratic nature began to show. Their attacks were desperate swings with no rhyme or rhythm, making them an interesting challenge.

Wordlessly, Katara took the firebender while Zuko took the man with the mace. 

The man sent a cascading wave of fire towards her, but she evaded by simply stepping out of the way. He continued to shoot small fireballs at her until she shot out several water whips that knock him to the ground. He got up again, though unsteady. 

She continued evading his haphazard attacks, rather than facing them directly. Once she sensed he missed a beat in his fire, she finished him off by pinning him to the wall with a series of ice daggers in rapid succession. The collision with the wall took him out.

As for Zuko, the fight was more or less the same, except with less fire. He almost always utilized his Dao as the Blue Spirit, after all. It was getting increasingly difficult to combat such a heavy weapon with swords, though. He sent several fireballs, hoping to catch the mace wielder off guard so he could deliver the knockout.

Zuko managed to avoid all his opponent’s attacks, except for a single hit to his mask. He didn’t particularly mind, he just kept sending fire. One fireball blazed past the man’s eyes, leaving him temporarily disabled. He dropped his weapon to the floor, and Zuko gladly took the opportunity to finish him. 

“You done?” Katara called out, sounding a little exasperated.

“Oh, sorry to keep you waiting,” he teased.

She walked over to him, taking the time to step over the unconscious guards at their feet. 

“Did you get hit at all?” she asked, grabbing one of his arms and examining for damage.

“Uh, yeah, once in my head, I think,” said Zuko, like it was nothing.

She looked up at him wide-eyed. “Are you kidding?! Take that mask off right now.” Her tone left no room for negotiation, but he doesn’t understand why she asked him to do it, because she’s already doing it herself. Katara was weird that way.

She handed him the mask and begins to look for any bruising. He looked at the wooden mask in his hands and realized that it took most of the blow. Well, he can assume it did, from the massive crack stretching from the eye to the outer edge. It stems from a crater shaped dent above the brow of the mask. He sighed, thinking about how he’d have to find a third one. 

“Kat, I’m _fine_ ,” he told her. She looked down at the mask and took it from his hands. She holds it up beside his face gingerly.

“Just think, if you hadn’t been wearing this old thing you’d have a giant indent in your skull. Sounds awful,” she joked before returning the mask to him.

“Did you get all those crates out to the docks?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Yeah, we can take them into town once we get out of here,” she answered.

She took his hand and the two walked out to the docks in front of the storage complex. Once they’re out, she wraps her arms around his neck, just taking a moment to pause. He wraps his arms around her waist and places a kiss to the top of her head. 

“Quite the honeymoon, huh?” he says against her hair. She can feel the smile in his words.

“Yeah, I’d say so,” she whispers. She hugs him a little tighter.

They stand like that for a couple more minutes before Zuko ruins it.

“We’re gonna have to do something about those guys we beat up, you know.”

“Can’t we just have a moment without you ruining it?”

“I guess so,” he concedes.

A couple more minutes pass.

“Well, we also have to bring those crates across the lake to the actual town,” Katara says.

“Well, now _you’re_ ruining the moment.”

**Author's Note:**

> hi! thanks for reading! i hope this is a bit better than my last one lmao -pidge


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